GiseleStead at 02:32, 19 February 2026

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{{Short description|Indian physician and writer (1874 –1951)}}
[[File:AliceSorabji1896.png|thumb|Alice Maude Sorabji, from an 1896 publication.]]
'''Alice Maude Sorabji Pennell''' [[OBE]] (July 17, 1874 – March 7, 1951) was an Indian physician and writer. She was the daughter and wife of Christian missionaries, and the first woman in India to earn a Bachelor of Science degree.

==Early life==
'''Alice Maude Sorabji''' was born at [[Belgaum]], the youngest daughter of [[Francina Sorabji]] and [[Reverend Sorabji Karsedji]]. Her mother was an educator and a Christian convert from Hinduism of tribal extraction;<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1JkGDAAAQBAJ&q=Francina+Ford&pg=PA137|title=Anglophone Indian Women Writers, 1870–1920|last=Brinks|first=Ellen|date=2016-04-15|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317180913|language=en}}</ref> her father was a Parsi Christian missionary. Her sisters included lawyer [[Cornelia Sorabji]] and educator [[Susie Sorabji]].<ref name="Open">[http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/alice-maude-sorabji-pennell Alice Maude Sorabji Pennell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322130309/http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/alice-maude-sorabji-pennell |date=2023-03-22 }}, ''Making Britain: Discover How South Asians Shaped the Nation, 1870-1950'' (Open University).</ref>

Alice Sorabji attended her family's Victoria High School in [[Poona]], and earned a Bachelor of Science degree at [[Wilson College, Mumbai|Wilson College in Bombay]], the first woman to earn that degree in India.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25041921/alice_maude_sorabji_1896/ "New Woman in India"] ''Chicago Tribune'' (March 9, 1896): 3. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25042193/alice_sorabji_pennell_1896/ "An Indian Lady Graduate"] ''Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper'' (January 26, 1896): 9. via [[Newspapers.com]]{{open access}}</ref> She was trained as a physician in London, with her older sister Cornelia's encouragement and efforts,<ref>[[Antoinette Burton]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=KCdeI2FMsp0C&q=Sorabji&pg=PA125 ''At the Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain''] (University of California Press 1998): 124-125. {{ISBN|9780520919457}}</ref> completing her studies in 1905.<ref name="Open" />

==Career==
Alice Sorabji worked at the Zenana Hospital in [[Bahawalpur]]. For her work at the Pennell Hospital at [[Bannu]] (in present-day Pakistan), she was awarded the [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]] in 1917. She was also appointed an [[OBE]] in 1921, for her hospital work during [[World War I]]. She retired from medical work in 1925.<ref name="Open" /><ref name="BMJObit">[https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC2069302&blobtype=pdf "Obituary"] ''British Medical Journal'' (March 31, 1951): 706.</ref> She was named an Officer of the [[Order of Saint John (chartered 1888)|Order of Saint John of Jerusalem]] in 1943.<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36069/page/2898/data.pdf "The Grand Priory in the British Realm of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem"] ''The London Gazette'' (June 25, 1943): 2898.</ref>

She wrote a biography of her husband, published soon after he died,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pennell |first=Alice Maud (Sorabji) |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001266576 |title=Pennell of the Afghan frontier |date=1914 |publisher=E. P. Dutton & company; Seeley, Service & co., ltd. |location=New York : London}}</ref> and novels including ''Children of the Border'' (1925), ''The Begum's Son'' (1928), and ''Doorways of the East '' (1931). A fourth novel remained unpublished. She also worked on women's higher education in India.<ref>Mrinalini Sinha, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xI2LClkTrFIC&dq=Sorabji+Pennell&pg=PA179 ''Specters of Mother India: The Global Restructuring of an Empire''] (Duke University Press 2006): 178. {{ISBN|9780822337959}}</ref> Later in life, she traveled and gave lectures on Indian women and health topics.<ref name="Open" /><ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15467113?searchTerm=Alice%20Sorabji%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&searchLimits= "Women Doctors for India"] ''Sydney Morning Herald'' (March 25, 1914): 5. via [[Trove]]{{open access}}</ref><ref>[https://www.bmj.com/content/1/4298/641.2 "Social Background of Health in India"] ''British Medical Journal'' (May 22, 1943): 641.</ref> "Absolutely fearless, she thinks nothing of taking an old Ford and proceeding, absolutely alone, into Afghanistan or up through the wilds of Persia," marveled a newspaper writer in 1930, when Alice Pennell was in her fifties, noting further that "she is the friend and confidante of women from all over India."<ref>Michael Pym, [https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/india/300525women.html "India's Women Who Stand With Mahatma Gandhi"] ''The New York Times'' (May 25, 1930).</ref>

==Personal life==
Alice Maude Sorabji married fellow physician [[Theodore Leighton Pennell]] in 1908.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pZNMAQAAMAAJ&dq=Alice+Maude+Sorabji+Pennell&pg=PA1495 "Marriages"] ''The Lancet'' (November 14, 1908): 1495.</ref> She was widowed when Pennell died in 1912, from [[septicaemia]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=riVXAAAAYAAJ&dq=Sorabji+Pennell&pg=PA475 "Dr. Pennell, of India"] ''The Missionary Review'' (June 1912): 475.</ref> They had a son. She died in 1951, aged 76 years, in [[Findon, Sussex]].<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25360277 "Deaths"] ''British Medical Journal'' (March 17, 1951): 597.</ref><ref name="BMJObit" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*Shane Gail Malhotra, [https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do;jsessionid=C11ADEE76984C50B3AACC17CBB7FF514?uin=uk.bl.ethos.601793 "Reading between the lines, 1839-1939: popular narratives of the Afghan frontier"] (Doctoral thesis, Open University, 2013). Includes a chapter on Alice Sorabji Pennell's writings.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennell, Alice Maude Sorabji}}
[[Category:1874 births]]
[[Category:1951 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian medical doctors]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women medical doctors]]
[[Category:Indian women novelists]]
[[Category:Parsi people]]
[[Category:British people of Parsi descent]]
[[Category:People from Findon, West Sussex]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]

Alice Maude Sorabji Pennell - Revision history

GiseleStead at 02:32, 19 February 2026